The extreme danger faced by migrants crossing the Mediterranean in small, rickety vessels was highlighted earlier today when a boat carry as many as 700 capsized, resulting in possibly the largest mass drowning since the migrant crisis began several years ago.
Initial reports said that only 28 of the 700 migrants had been rescued, though one report put the figure at 50. The disaster happened about 60 kilometres off the Libyan coast and about 200 kilometres south of the Italian island of Lampedusa, which lies roughly half way between Sicily and northwest Libya.
The emergency was declared at about midnight, local time, with more than a dozen Italian and Maltese ships taking part in the rescue, plus three helicopters. At midday Sunday, the UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, said the rescue was ongoing. The vessel is believed to have capsized when the migrants shifted to one side of the vessel when a merchant ship approached. “At the moment, we fear that this is a tragedy of really vast proportions, UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami told SkyTG24 television.
The incident appears to be similar to one last week, when about 400 migrants were believed to have drowned when the sudden rush to one side of the boat caused it tip over.
Speaking at a political event in northern Italy, Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi said Europe was witnessing “systematic slaughter in the Mediterranean” and called for an emergency cabinet meeting.
If confirmed, the 700 deaths would bring the number of dead in the Mediterranean to 1,500 so far this year. That’s a nine-fold increase over the first four months of last year. In 2014, more than 3,000 migrants perished in the Mediterranean, the highest on record. With the migrant crossings becoming more frequent as the weather turns warmer, the UNHCR and the emergency rescue services fear the death toll could set a new record in 2015.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that 20,000 migrants have reached Lampedusa, Sicily and other parts of the Italian coast this year.
The latest deaths have already triggered a new debate within the European Union on how to prevent more tragedies as migration across the Mediterranean shows no sign of abating. The civil wars and humanitarian crises in Syria, Libya and parts of sub-Saharan Africa are delivering tens of thousands of migrants into the hands of ruthless human traffickers, who usually provide the migrants with flimsy boats, broken-down boats that are incapable of making it safely through storms and high seas.
“A tragedy is unfolding in the Mediterranean and if the EU and the world continue to close their eyes, it will be judged in the harshest terms,” Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat said Sunday.
Late last year, the Italian government, with the encouragement of some EU member states, wound down its Mare Nostrum migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean, which were carried out by the Italian navy. Those countries critical of Mare Nostrum said its presence merely encouraged migrant crossings – the “pull factor” – endangering more lives. The Italians also complained that the operation was excessively costly, at about €9-million a month, and had sought unsuccessfully to share the financial burden.
Mare Nostrum’s replacement program, run by the EU, is called Triton and operates with one-third of Mare Nostrum budget.
Roberta Metsola, a Maltese European Parliament member who has been campaigning for a broader response to the Mediterranean refugee crisis, has called Triton wholly inadequate and wants more ships devoted to the operation, as do the Italians. She is the lead author of an EU report that says the root causes of the migration crisis, such as the proliferation of traffickers in Libya, have to be tackled.
In his regular papal address on Sunday, Pope Francis expressed his sorrow for the victims of the mass drowning. “These are men and women like us who seek a better life,” he said. “Hungry, persecuted, injured, exploited, victims of wars. They were looking for happiness.”
With a file from Reuters
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
from Top Stories - Google News http://ift.tt/1yH4hNg
via IFTTT
0 comments:
Post a Comment